Seven injured in twin cylinder blast in M’laya

Seven people were injured, two of them critically, in a twin Liquefied Gas Petroleum (LPG) cylinder blast at two separate cafés here in Meghalaya on Monday, a police official said.
The first blast occurred inside a Banana Leaf café kitchen at around 2.15p.m and 15 minutes later another gas exploded inside a kitchen at Madras Café in Police Bazaar, the police official said.
Meghalaya police officials, who visited the two sites, ruled out the possibility of a bomb blast or involvement of any rebel group in the twin explosion. A mangled gas cylinder from Madras café has been seized, while police are searching for the gas cylinder from Banana Leaf which caused the explosion.
“We have completely rule out the possibility of a bomb blast or the involvement of GNLA (Garo National Liberation Army) in it (explosion), but we are not ruling out the possibility of a foul play,” A.R.Mawthoh, the district police chief of East Khasi Hills told journalists. Preliminary investigations indicate that the cylinders exploded due to gas leakage, he said.
Meanwhile, a team of Forensic Scientific Laboratory (FSL) officials have examined the explosion sites and collected samples, even as police officials have questioned Raja Ratnam, the owner of the two cafés in town. The injured people who are all staffers of the two cafes have been admitted in hospital. Incidentally, the two explosions occurred after the military wing Chief of GNLA Sohan D Shira had threatened to trigger serial blasts in across Meghalaya.